Onion farming and preservation

Onion is an essential cooking ingredient in Bangladesh. However, it often gets pricier since we are largely dependent on imported onions. Making Bangladesh self-sufficient in onion production and adopting scientific methods to preserve perishable vegetables like onion can largely avoid the crisis, which has by now become a recurring problem year after year with its price shooting up without reason or rhyme. According to the ministry of agriculture, during the financial year 2022-23 Bangladesh produced a total of 3.4 million metric tonnes of onion against the demand for 6.2 million metric tonnes. Besides, as we could not preserve onions properly, around 30 per cent (about one million metric tonne) of the locally produced onions has rotted.
Onion is a vegetable spice. It grows extensively in winter in our country. If we want to grow more onions, we must make an arrangement for their storages, too, so that they can be used throughout the year like potatoes. Munshiganj is known to us as the main potato growing hub. However, this district can be an ideal place for onion cultivation because it has a significant number of cold storages. If the potato growers of Munshiganj can be motivated to cultivate onions in half of their potato fields, these onions can easily be stored and used throughout the year. Yes, for this the Agriculture Extension Department must come forward first. It should encourage farmers by providing onion seeds, fertiliser and know-how for growing and preserving onions. It will also help potato growers get fair price for their produce. Owing to excess production, potato farmers are now incurring losses. On the other hand, consumers are buying onions at Tk 80-90 in Dhaka city, which should be sold at Tk 20-25. In addition to that, the government can provide easy loans to establish cold storages for onion in existing onion growing hubs like Faridpur, Meherpur, Kustia, Shirajganj, etc. We hope these measures will make Bangladesh self-sufficient in onion production within the next two years.

Md Ashraf Hossain,
120, Central Bashabo, Dhaka 214,
mah120cb@yahoo.com